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Prospects for e-Advocacy in the Global South
January 2007
Project director: Ricken Patel
Social change is driven by communication, coordination, and collective action by groups of citizens who wish to change the institutions and policies that govern them. This change is vital to the progress of the global south, and it can only be led by the citizens of that region. This paper suggests
that the rapid spread of information and communications technology (ICT) in the global south offers possibilities for democratic and social change unmatched since decolonization.
The internet and other communications technologies are revolutionizing the way individuals communicate, coordinate, and act across the world. Websites, SMS ("short message service", or "text messages"), and mobile phones are democratizing the production and consumption of information, and allowing the possibility of new forms of flexible, rapid citizen organizing outside existing power structures.
Despite a persistent digital divide, this communications revolution is not limited to the global north. In two years, a quarter of a billion Indians will have mobile phones. Last year, one million Indonesians voted via text message in the Indonesian Idol contest. Thirteen million Brazilians have joined Orkut, a social networking website. Moreover, penetration of these technologies can revolutionize advocacy long before they reach substantial percentages of the population. The President of the Philippines was deposed in 2001 in an SMS-organized mobilization he called a "coup de t ext" when just 15% of Filipinos had mobile phones.
Keywords: e-Advocacy
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